How to pick a winner theme for your blog

November 6th, 2007 · 7 Comments · Tags: Blogging & RSS · Internet Marketing · SEO Copywriting

Selecting a good theme (design) for your blog can be fun, but it is also a critical factor regarding the overall success of your blog. There are a few key elements that you must keep in mind when selecting your blog’s theme.

It doesn’t matter if you’re working with WordPress, TypePad or any other blogging platform… The single most important thing you can do when selecting a theme for your new blog is to try to look at all the available options from your reader’s perspective. Why? Because in the end, it is your target audience who will visit your blog frequently to read the information you publish – and if the design you select makes your readers grow tired of it fairly quickly, then the blog will never become a popular destination.

Equally important is the fact that the theme must not become tiresome for you. Actually, it must even encourage you to frequently visit it, improve and write on it. If the blog theme doesn’t inspire you to write, blogging may quickly become a chore (and boy, don’t you hate those?).

When you look at a new theme for your blog ask yourself this: Could I look at this for the next year without growing tired of it? Will my readers feel the same way about it?

Stick to standard blog layouts
While there are many innovative themes for your blog out there, I would only recommend sticking to the 4 standard ones. These are website layouts that almost everyone online has been in touch with and know how to navigate:

Remember the KISS rule (Keep It Simple Stupid). If you select one of those weird and modern themes that make your visitors figure out your navigation or blog organization, chances are they will not bother to do it. Be respectful of their time and they will reward you by visiting your blog again in the future.

Let your theme speak to your audience.
You only have a few precious seconds to make that first impression. And even when it is not wise to judge a book by its cover, we all do it online… So make sure that the blog theme you select reflects your audience’s wants and needs.

People come to your site for the first time asking themselves “Does this site have the information I’m looking for?”. Let your theme put their minds at ease by giving them hints and clues that in fact it does and then let your content speak for itself. If the content and theme do not match, people will leave your blog confused… and never come back.

Color and photos don’t matter, layout does.
When selecting your theme, don’t focus too much on the color. Changing the color of a theme is actually a lot easier than changing the entire layout – so don’t worry if a theme you like does not match the color palette you had in mind.

The same goes for the photos or images in the theme. Those are there just to give you an idea, but they can be changed easily to match your audience’s expectations.

Even if you don’t have any design skills at all and you want to hire someone to tweak the theme for you; it will be a lot cheaper if the designer only has to change colors and photos than to change a complete layout.

When looking for a theme, navigate through each one in full. Make sure that the “single post” view has the sidebar in the same spot as the rest of the pages. If the main structure and the layout of the theme don’t have what you want, you’ll have to modify them – and that takes a good level of CSS and XHTML expertise. Instead, try to find the blog structure that most closely matches your needs and then tweak the colors, photos and other details to your liking.